


a tragicomedy in paving slabs

by catpoop



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Crack, Episode: s02e10 Love & Monsters, F/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 01:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21437755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catpoop/pseuds/catpoop
Summary: see, this episode raised many questions. i have many questionsElton and his slab of a girlfriend take on the future together
Relationships: Ursula Blake/Elton Pope
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	a tragicomedy in paving slabs

**Author's Note:**

> i couldnt watch the episode in its entirety it was so bad so any inaccuracies are because of ME

The voice in his room has Elton leaping from his bed, replaying in his mind’s eye the gruesome appearance of the Abzorbaloff and sweating clammy from every pore. He scrubs at his face and shakes the nightmare from his thoughts as much as he can, but keeps his eyes closed until he can no longer deny the presence of another voice in the room with him. 

He whips his head around to find – _oh, Ursula!_

“Ursula, was that you?” His voice comes out shaky and he clears his throat, to no avail.

“Yes, Elton.” She smiles. The paving slab doesn’t move. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

He scrambles for an apology, still feeling flustered. It was _nothing_, he tells himself. Don’t be silly. “No, sorry, I was just thinking about that alien. And the Doctor. And, oh – you know.” She nods, and Elton continues. “Were you asleep, too? I didn’t even think – ”

“It’s hard to sleep,” she interrupts gently.

“Hard – ?”

“It’s the strangest thing, Elton, I can hardly describe it. Like pins and needles in my whole body.”

He gulps, suddenly unsure of what to say. “I’m – I’m sorry?”

“It’s okay. You go back to sleep.”

He does so dutifully, but not without lying awake for the better part of an hour, contemplating his new life. 

Ursula is still there when he awakes the next morning. Thankfully, the same cannot be said for the Abzorbaloff, the Doctor, or any other part of his nightmare. She greets him with that same smile as last night and their last date and that moment LINDA discovered they could make music together.

Elton carries her gently to the living area outside, and they settle down for breakfast. He blurts the question, the first one of many he has already collected since the Doctor did his part.

“Can you eat or drink?”

“I don’t know.” Ursula’s face pinches in thought. “I suppose I have a mouth…”

“Then I’ll make you a cup of tea. And toast.” He bustles about the kitchenette, grabbing mugs and plates and knives, and then they sit on the same side of the table. Elton secures an arm around the back edge of her concrete form and feeds her the tea and toast, to surprising success.

“That’s very funny,” Ursula says. “I can feel it going down my throat –” She cuts off with a cough, then another, and Elton almost feels the concrete shake in his grip despite its weight.

In hindsight, they should have both seen the splatter of undigested tea coming from a mile away. Elton mops it up with a towel, and Ursula coughs, and they ponder their breakfast in silence. His crunch of toast echoes bitterly loudly in the small apartment. 

“…I guess that’s a no.”

He likes to think that their relationship is a tenacious one, undeterred by conspiracy or scheming or tragedy. ‘It’s not a tragedy,’ Ursula interrupts, happy to have made it out alive, but Elton has to question the sincerity of her statement. They’re an optimistic couple, is the gist of it. Ursula is still running her blog, and Elton is still investigating mysteries, if not ones from outer space. He’ll limit it to Earthbound occurrences and beings from now on.

Still, his curiosity continues to flare bright and rebellious, and it isn’t helped by Ursula’s occasional pondering:

“Do you think the Doctor could put me in another body?”

Elton doesn’t like the train of thought. “Well, we don’t have LINDA anymore, so we could hardly track him down ourselves. Would he pay us another visit, do you think?”

“You’ve seen him twice already,” she reminds. “Why not once more?”

Elton frowns.

They don’t see the Doctor again, at least not in the following five years. Elton keeps a good eye out, despite what he had promised himself, and despite what the nightmares always warn him. He keeps his ears peeled for the roar of the TARDIS, but the city remains silent. Well, how silent he isn’t entirely sure, because they don’t leave the house much anymore, not with how Ursula doesn’t like to be alone.

This is mostly in part due to that minor car accident a year or so back, that had Elton stranded in A&E for a few hours.

“You know I can’t contact you!” Ursula had yelled upon his return. “This body doesn’t age, and I can’t _move_, and if you hadn’t come back –”

The thought chills him to the bone. 

See, he can do five years. He can do fifty. But any more than that, and he wonders what they will end up doing. He tries not to think about the sledgehammers tearing up the road outside, and turns back to his computer.

**Author's Note:**

> dont @ me
> 
> i was initially going to include a visceral scene of death-by-sledgehammer with the both of them begging for the sweet release of death but. It Physically Pained Me To Do So
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/hashtag_yikes)  



End file.
